Tuesday, March 22, 2011

Nutty

I really dislike the taste of store bought almond butter. But I’ve made several batches in the past few days, added different ingredients and it’s DEElicious. Better than peanut butter. (Never thought I’d say that)

-Food processor. I attempted almond butter in my (Amazing, Awesome, Spectacular) Blendtec and while it can handle peanuts just fine, almonds are a lot more difficult to process so it overheated. Boo. So I said, “Hey mom, wanna buy a food processor?” And enticed her with the idea of fresh almond butter every week. (yes, it lives at her house but I visit almost daily.)

First step, spread your almonds onto a baking sheet and toast in the oven for 10 minutes at 325* F. Let cool for 10 more minutes.

Throw your cooled almonds into the processor and press start.

After about one minute it should look like this.

After two minutes.

Three and a half minutes. Not done yet.

Six minutes. Don’t stop!

Ten minutes. Ahhh….beautiful creaminess.

Now, melt those chocolate chips and grapseed oil in a glass bowl over a saucepan with almost boiling water. Remove when chocolate chips are almost fully melted. Or, you could even throw the whole bowl of unmelted chocolate chips into the processor and let it go. It will melt as it mixes. Cool right?

And try to keep sneaky fingers away.

Dump chocolate into your almond butter along with all other ingredients.

Voila!

And while you’re so engrossed in watching this concoction come together you’ll turn around and see this:

Oh my. She’s like the chocolate Joker. Note to self: Never leave melted chocolate bowl in the vicinity of an almost three year-old.